'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'

The much-anticipated, much-delayed musical spectacular "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" with music and lyrics by U2’s Bono and the Edge, has been given a date for the start of preview performances – Sunday, Nov. 14 – at Broadway’s newly renamed Foxwoods Theater (formerly the Hilton Theater).

The show’s producers announced on Tuesday that they had also set an opening night, Tuesday, Dec. 21. The musical is estimated to have a budget of $50 million – the largest in Broadway history.

Directed by Julie Taymor, the Tony Award-winning creator of the long-running musical “The Lion King,” “Spider-Man” appears to have rebounded from a long production delay that involved scuttling its original plan to start performances last February. Its former lead producers, led by David Garfinkle, were unable to raise the money for the show, prompting Bono, Ms. Taymor and others to recruit rock impresario Michael Cohl as the new lead producer last November. (Mr. Garfinkle and his Hello Entertainment company remain as producers.)

If the schedule holds, “Spider-Man” will begin performances right after the 13th anniversary of the opening of “The Lion King,” the Broadway smash that Ms. Taymor has said that “Spider-Man” will need to rival in success to cover its costs. “The Lion King” began its Broadway run on Oct. 15, 1997, and opened that Nov. 13; since then, the production has grossed $713 million, according to the box-office database of the Broadway League, a trade group for theater producers and owners – and many millions more from other productions worldwide.

Re: 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'

I have been looking foward to this for a VERY long time! Although I'm not a Spider-Man fan, I'm a HUGE fan of Julie Taymor. Anything she does is just so original and out of the box. Plus I keep reading about how expensive the show is to produce. The song was so-so. It will probably sound and feel better on stage with all the shiz-zam!

Re: 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'

Just an FYI, the opening was pushed back to Jan 11, with previews Nov. 28. Don't know how much 2 weeks will help this already stalled show, but I'm interested in seeing reviews, though I think it's going to be bad. It can only be absolutely astounding or horribly awful. There's no in between with this one.

Re: 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'

It’s Official: Broadway’s ‘Spider-Man’ Delayed Until February 7

Most expensive production in Broadway history was set for January 11 opening.

The trouble-plagued Broadway production of Spider-Man Turn off the Dark has delayed its opening night until February 7, according to a release from the production company.The original opening night was January 11.

Lead producer Michael Cohl said in a statement: “Due to some unforeseeable setbacks, most notably the injury of a principal cast member, it has become clear that we need to give the team more time to fully execute their vision."

"Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark is an extremely ambitious undertaking, as everyone knows, and I have no intention of cutting a single corner in getting to the finish line,” he added.

During its first week of previews, the show grossed $919,457 from five performances at the theater. That’s 98.2% capacity at an average ticket price of $97.11. Three previews were cancelled; had the show played a full eight performances, it could have made nearly $1.5 million.

Re: 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark'

Oy.. More bad news for the show. Pretty scary situation, glad the performer wasn't seriously hurt. I guess we can expect more delays?

Uh-oh: According to several people in the audience of tonight's show, the Bono-penned, Julie Taymor-directed Spider-Man musical Turn off the Dark just stopped a performance mid-show after an actor was involved in a 'big accident'—possibly a two-story fall. Luckily, it seems as though the actor involved is okay, though there's no official word about any of this, so we're going off Twitter accounts. Here's what seems to have happened: The actor playing Spider-Man (Reeve Carney or his alternate Matthew James Thomas? most likely one of the aerial doubles) and the actress playing his love interest Mary Jane (Jennifer Damiano) fell into the stage pit an hour or so into the show. According to screenwriter Brian Lynch, it looked "planned," until the audience heard Damiano screaming.

A tipster who emailed us told a similar story:

Long story short, spiderman fell abt 30 feet INTO THE PIT. As soon as he fell, the lead female character yelled (from the pit) "someone call 9-1-1." I wish I was making this up. When we left there were ambulances and firefighters outside the theater on 43rd.